In Defense of Hillary: The Entire Democratic Establishment is to Blame

Blame the DNC, Not Hillary

Hillary Didn't Goof...Her Establishment Backers Did

On Tuesday morning, the punditry and mainstream media couldn't stop praising Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to the sky. The former Secretary of State, winning all the polls, was on the cusp of becoming the first woman leader of the free world. Everyone knew that Clinton would win the election and become our 45th president...the only question was by how great a margin. Pontificators were busy arguing the size of Clinton's mandate, not whether or not she would win.

But, in a shocker that will likely get its own chapter in U.S. History textbooks, Republican nominee Donald Trump scored the unlikeliest of upsets. The bombastic billionaire, widely derided as an immature, inexperienced bigot, swept the swing states and actually won the Democratic stronghold of Pennsylvania. When Trump won Pennsylvania, Clinton's loss was sealed. Immediately, Democrats and liberals began placing blame for the painful upset: Jill Stein, Gary Johnson, Bernie Sanders, and voter suppression by Republicans have all been accused of reducing the number of votes received by Hillary Clinton.

Most surprising, perhaps, is how quickly the mainstream media and punditry have been to blame the Democratic nominee herself. Since Tuesday night, Clinton has been blamed for complacency and poor strategy. How quickly the hero becomes the villain!

I have always been a staunch supporter of Bernie Sanders, and voted for Jill Stein during early voting, but I must defend Hillary Clinton's campaign performance. While she focused overmuch on criticizing Trump rather than promoting her own policies, she was hardly complacent. As an outside observer, I feel that Hillary Clinton ran the race well. She should not have been the Democratic nominee, but she performed ably once given the role.

Hillary Clinton's downfall was not her effort, but her past. She ran as well a campaign as she could have, but her controversial past suppressed her popularity. The e-mail scandal, the Clinton Foundation scandal, Bill Clinton's scandals, and "Clinton fatigue" all combined to nullify her hard work. Clinton was not complacent - she just had baggage she could not overcome.

While Hillary Clinton can be blamed for refusing to bow out of the race when her e-mail scandal erupted, or at many points thereafter when it flared up again and again, she does not deserve the bulk of the blame for the Democrats' current fiasco. Instead, the blame falls upon her establishment endorsers. Eager for pork-barrel perks and a loyalist Clinton gravy train, these congressmen, governors, and members of the Obama administration threw common sense out the window and endorsed the weaker presidential candidate. Bernie Sanders, who was winning swing voters and swing states, was in a far better position to defeat Donald Trump on Election Day.

Despite reams of evidence showing that Sanders was far more competitive against Trump than was Clinton, the Democratic Party bigwigs refused to pay any attention. These men and women of power propelled Hillary Clinton to the Democratic nomination. Media bias and constantly-touted endorsements swayed just enough low-information voters to give Clinton the edge. Bernie Sanders did not lose the Democratic nomination in a fair race: He was sabotaged by unethical media bias and internal DNC politicking.

Hillary Clinton was a weak candidate due to her record-high unpopularity levels, but she cannot be blamed for much of that. She is what she is: Smart, focused, ambitious, stiff, cold, flawed, inspiring. Did she rig the media directly? Did she rig the DNC directly? No, she did not. Individual men and women in the media and on the Democratic National Committee, desiring pork, took it upon themselves to sugarcoat Clinton and sink Sanders. They figured that far greater rewards awaited them for helping Hillary Clinton.

The Democratic Party cannot fix itself until it acknowledges that much of its 2016 failure was due to the corruption and profiteering of its mid-ranking members, not the alleged weaknesses of its presidential nominee.

Comments

No HTML is allowed in comments, but URLs will be hyperlinked. Comments are not for promoting your articles or other sites.

sending

Sanxuary 18 months ago

Here's a list

1. Hillary was a terrible choice and already owned the Supper Delegates, read Wiki Leaks for more details. I was surprised Bernie ever stopped fighting but he is coming back.

2. The biggest was the media who lulled swing state voters into believing that Hillary could not lose based on the worst polls ever done.

3. The FBI`s little game on launching an investigation at the last minute was a very bad move.

4. Still unmentioned is Russia admitting to having ties with Trump to rig the election in his favor and the hacking incidents.

5. I still have no idea what Wiki leaks was trying to achieve but they lost my support. If your an activist then you better be fair. I suspect they hate America mostly.

6. Trump claimed the Election was rigged but won? If you defended the election and it was rigged, how do you fight that now?

7. Most of all it was the people who do not care about any facts who believe that the insanity to come will not affect them. He taught everyone that the most ruthless person wins.

8. Most of all it was the true silent majority that refused to vote for two terrible candidates. The best choice was to not vote at all then to support anyone's insanity.

CJ Kelly 18 months agofrom Auburn, WA

Calvin, disagree entirely.

1. HRC failed to go back to MI and WI as well as other parts of PA. Her energy was a problem.

2. Bernie is to blame. You can't go around demonizing HRC as part of the establishment for months and not expect backlash. Many supporters (you included) failed to vote for her. Why did Trump win? Look in the mirror.

Connect with us

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, soapboxie.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)

Google AdSense Host API

This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Facebook Login

You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Maven

This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)

We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.

Conversion Tracking Pixels

We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.

Statistics

Author Google Analytics

This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)

Comscore

ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)

Amazon Tracking Pixel

Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)